“Perhaps, those who take things for granted, or plead sudden amnesia, have to revisit the past and not only focus on people who sacrificed their lives in the fight for the country’s inclusive democracy, but also black South Africans whose defiance fuelled their passion to succeed in a business landscape where the odds did not favour them. Who else is a better reference than the late Richard Maponya, as South Africa embarks on a course to reset its developmental trajectory.”
There was no better befitting gratitude for the late business magnate, Richard John Pelwana Maponya, than the sight of selfless community members putting their lives on the line from looters to defend the monument of self-made black business success, Maponya Mall in Soweto. Odd ones out, this is a group that appreciates what the asset, which houses businesses that provide livelihood and a sense of meaning to their community, means.
As the country resets to turn open a new chapter, after recent chaos, there is no perfect man to draw inspiration from to prevail over adversity than from the entrepreneurial mindset of the late Maponya, who made the most of the bad situation to succeed.
When it wasn’t legal for a black South African to own a business outside their designated areas of residents under the then group areas act, the proverbial alchemist he was, Maponya turned the challenge into an opportunity. Seeing the shortage of basic goods amongst his own people in the township of Soweto, he turned the need into a niche market for his chain of stores and other business ventures, having started vending from dusty streets of Soweto’s location of Dube. No venture capital, no political connection, no entitlement, nothing but unshakeable determination him bigger than the modest financial means he had to build investment portfolio values at tens of millions (this was during heady era of apartheid mind you, not these days of relatively easy pickings!).
Even in the ‘new’ South Africa, Maponya never jettisoned the values that made him a David that overcame the towering Goliath of apartheid restrictions. While some political activists voraciously accumulated wealth for themselves from dubious preferential procurement deals, while paying lipservice to caring for the poor, Maponya remained steadfastly wedded to the values that made him succeed.
Founder and president of the SA SMME Forum, Tebogo Khaas, described him perfectly in a tribute he wrote about Maponya: “A man of hard work, tenacity and integrity, Ntate Maponya had a big heart for SA’s democratic order and economic prosperity, but little tolerance for entitlement.”
He added: “Ntate Maponya demonstrated through his exemplary life teachings that business success, social entrepreneurship and ethical business leadership are not mutually exclusive economic philosophies.”
Perhaps, those who take things for granted, or plead sudden amnesia, have to revisit the past and not only focus on people who sacrificed their lives in the fight for the country’s inclusive democracy, but also on black South Africans whose defiance fuelled their passion to succeed in a business landscape where the odds did not favour them. Who else is a better reference than the late Richard Maponya.
